Hotfixes 2/7 and News Roundup

Some minor hotfixes today--most notably, Ultraxion trash is less lengthy, and you can grind out Lovely Charms while on the quest Test Your Strength now.

There's also been a ton of blue posts recently, covering everything from PvP mage talents to phasing and account-wide achievements in Mists of Pandaria. Will be especially nice to know more about the new achievement system soon!

Last but not least, our awesome friends at WoWInterface have released their Pick of the Week addon--it's perfect for players who love reputation grinds, either for achievements or for completion's sake! Faction Addict is a replacement for the in-game faction window. It can show you all factions, even those you have not encountered, and will keep track of your gains from previous sessions. You may order factions by percent to exalted or alphabetically. Additionally, each faction has a separate popup listing details about the faction and a link to its section on Wowhead.

Blizzard Entertainment

Dungeons and Raids

Dragon Soul

After the instance is cleared, Crimson Lifebinder now resurrects the non-player characters at Wyrmrest Temple, and they are fully functional.

Ultraxion

The event leading to Ultraxion now requires 15 Drakes killed, down from 24.

Account-wide Achievements in Mists of Pandaria

With Mists of Pandaria, account-wide achievements will indeed become available at the Battle.net account level, and many achievements will be shared among characters. A wide array of achievements will certainly be covered, including achievements that relate to everything from raiding and PvP to maxing out professions and assorted fun challenges. We really love the idea that players will at last be able to proudly display proof of the full scope of their adventures around Azeroth, regardless of which character they choose to play on any given day.

While we are still working out the details regarding how various specific achievements will interact with the new system, once we have a bit more information to share with you, we’ll certainly let you know.

About Mists of Pandaria

Why MoP?

That's a decent question, Zubupally! I'll do what I can to address some of the popular questions/concerns on this late Friday's eve.

First, for some context, we showed a lot of pandaren at BlizzCon because that was the art we had completed at the time (and obviously it's the new playable race). Are there pandaren all over the new continent? Of course. There are also some really unique cultures and new races, including some very diabolical villains in the form of the mogu, the mantid, and the sha.

As a few posters have pointed out, Pandaria starts out relatively unspoiled. (spoiler!) That isn’t going to last. The Horde versus Alliance conflict is going to continue to ratchet up in a way we've often talked about, but never really delivered before now. It gives the story more depth (we hope!) when you get to see the “before” before the “after.”

The new continent has a heavy Asian vibe, but it’s still a fantasy game and there are some very fantastic and original landscapes as well. The last few zones in particular are what we like to call "high concept." You won’t find anything like them in the real world.

With all that said, you might still be asking, "why MoP?"

We think, more than seven years into World of Warcraft's life cycle, it's time to start some new stories. Previous expansions relied heavily on heroes and villains established in the Warcraft RTS games. We aren’t content to rest on our laurels though. We want to introduce some new characters to get to know. We want to have some new enemies to fight. Perhaps, most importantly, we want to start sowing the seeds for future stories. Nothing is lamer than finding out that the boss you're supposed to kill is someone you've never heard of. It’s a lot more fun when you get to know the bad guys, get a reason to hate them, and feel like you're thwarting their diabolical plans and not just killing them for loot.

We've focused a lot on the lighter side of Mists of Pandaria as a contrast to the world-ending vibe of Cataclysm. It’s not all unicorns and butterflies however. There are dark secrets lurking beneath the new continent, and in some ways they're even more insidious, because you get to experience the beautiful new landscapes before they become threatened and sometimes even destroyed.

To summarize, we provided you all with a very basic framework for the next expansion at BlizzCon. By the time the press tour ends in March, expect to get a lot more information on the real meat of this expansion. It won't be correctly summarized by a portrait of a smiling panda chewing on bamboo.

From this post, I gather, that there will be:

- significant phasing landscapes will be changed and you will not b eable help or be helped by players in a different phase. (this is anti social, I will not beable to play with my friends who are not on the same quets as me)

Phasing is one of the most powerful tools in the designer toolkit. But like many powerful tools, it can cause great damage if used incorrectly. We definitely have overdone it in the past.

There is some phasing in Mists, but we try to take care not to separate friends, create ghosted mining nodes, and similarly disrupt your gameplay. What we were really referring to by the “dark secrets” is the way the story unfolds. The story in Cataclysm was something players knew from the outset -- Deathwing is back. The players were still heroes trying to undo some of the damage he caused, but they also still largely reacted to the things Deathwing and his minions had already done. In Mists we're attempting to take that one step further and have the world react to the players, and not just have the players react to the world. It gives the game a dynamic, “alive” feeling which is very much needed in a persistent-world game.

Some of the changes we’re talking about aren't going to happen right away, but we’ll build toward them in subsequent patches. While you can’t truly keep story secrets in this business, we're trying not to spoil the surprises too early. In retrospect, we’ve taken a little bit of flak for this approach, because the misconception among some players is that the new continent has no conflict. There is plenty of conflict, but a lot of it begins when you arrive (rather than in Cataclysm, where great cracks in Azeroth appeared before your adventuring began).

Battle.net Balance

Battle.net Balance is now live! As we announced previously, Battle.net Balance is a new feature that gives players an alternate way to purchase Blizzard digital products and services directly through their Battle.net accounts. Players are now able add to their Battle.net Balance using a variety of payment methods, and then use that balance toward Blizzard Entertainment products and services such as World of Warcraft game time; paid services, such as realm transfers and character name changes; digital versions of select Blizzard games, including Diablo II and StarCraft II; and in-game pets and mounts. In the near future, players will be also able to use Battle.net Balance for the digital World of Warcraft Battle Chest and WoW digital upgrades. In addition, with the upcoming launch of Diablo III, players will have the option to use Battle.net Balance to buy and sell items in the game’s currency-based auction house.

World of Warcraft Action Figures

Are you an avid collector of World of Warcraft action figures? Or perhaps you’re just intrigued by intricate design and incredible detail? Whatever the case may be, you’ll certainly fall under the spell of these three new Series 8 action figures, now available on the Blizzard Store!

These magnificent figures boast elaborate attention to detail, expressing each character’s own unique nuances and personality. They would be perfect additions to any fantasy-themed collection. Be sure to pick them up before they're gone forever!

Remember fighting that pesky Black Knight in the Argent Tournament? He’s now on your side, wielding his massive sword and ready to rain death down upon his enemies as a 19-cm action figure!

Standing at 17 cm tall, the Forsaken Princess Confessor Dahlia is ready to smite her foes and heal her companions with the powers of holy and shadow.

Brink Spannercrank stands at 7 cm and is prepared to take the candle from the Kobold Miner, Snaggle, who stands at more than 11 cm. This pair will certainly inspire you for battle.

Don’t miss the chance to get your hands on these spectacular limited edition figures from our Blizzard Store while you still can!

The Premium Series 4 action figures are set to follow soon – keep an eye on the World of Warcraft blog for more information.

Inscription and Gyphs

The Book of Glyph Mastery is actually a topic we’ve been discussing in our meetings. I can’t make any promises just yet but can at least acknowledge that we’re tossing around ideas for the book and for researching new Inscription glyphs.

There has been quite a bit of honest and reasonable feedback. I appreciate all of you for sharing and for being patient while I worked to follow-up with the developers for more information.

Back in May of 2010, we began tossing around ideas about how to improve Inscription. But at that time, Mists of Pandaria was still in the early stages of character talent development. As that was hashed out, it directly affected how we were then able to approach potential Inscription and glyph changes. As a matter of fact, at one point during the discussions, glyphs were going to be removed altogether. That then evolved into the idea of Prime glyphs being removed, Major glyphs being adjusted such that their added bonuses did not affect talents, and Minor glyphs being revamped so they felt more interesting.

Have no fear, I have been assured that Inscription and glyph discovery are being actively discussed in preparation for upcoming changes with Mists of Pandaria. This comes with one albeit relieving caveat: Glyphs that are now learned solely through the Book of Glyph Mastery are planned to be available through the Northrend and Minor research dailies.

Vaeflare is being Helpful <3

As others have mentioned, you certainly have a wide variety of options available to you in order to progress steadily toward 85, but both dungeons and questing offer some unique and valuable experiences in their own right. So it really might be in your best interest to do a bit of both. Some quest chains even lead you towards running a particular dungeon for especially appealing rewards.

Since you are a Protection paladin, running dungeons will also give you some valuable tanking experience that will be incredibly useful to you all the way to 85 and beyond. As you noted: you can also receive gear and weapons from dungeons, which can be a great asset to you while leveling. Questing, on the other hand, offers unique rewards including not only gear upgrades, but a lot of fun and unique items like the X-52 Rocket Helmet.

Don’t forget that there are loads of items that you can pick up along the way for Transmogrification purposes, too. Regardless of whether or not they are an actual upgrade for you, if you groove with how they look, you should make sure to snag them up so you can Transmogrify them later. In most cases you won’t be able to obtain them any other way outside of Outland’s unique dungeons, drops, and quests.

In addition, if you haven’t experienced the multitude of stories that are taking place in Outland, I feel like you would be missing out on a lot of really great stuff if you skip it entirely. That’s not to say you should feel compelled to finish every single quest you can find (there are achievements for that sort of thing, after all!), but you might enjoy at least doing a handful of quests in each zone in order to get a feel for all that’s taking place during The Burning Crusade. In many cases, for me, I actually found that once I’d taken a few steps into a particular quest chain, I ended up really wanting to find out how it ended, too.

In addition to a lot of heavily lore-driven quests, there are also some downright amusing ones, such as one that involves tossing a Booterang at some particularly lazy peons. And who would want to miss out on slinging a booterang? ;)

About Raids

Some solid, constructive feedback and observations have been offered in this thread. But I think it’s important to point out that it’s incorrect to assume that there has been reduced development time put into raids.

If anything, over the years we’ve put increased attention into raids so that a wider breadth of players can experience them. There are a great deal more options for pursuing raiding now than say, in classic World of Warcraft or The Burning Crusade, when raid groups were a fixed size and only one difficulty setting existed. We realize that some players prefer to run with 24 other comrades-in-arms at the max difficulty setting (I’m actually one of them :) ), whereas others prefer more intimate raids or a lower difficulty setting.

In Mists of Pandaria, we plan to be able to continue to support a wide variety of raiding styles. And, from one player to another, if you’re eager for raid zones with an “epic” feel, you’re going to really enjoy some of the stuff we have in store. We’ll have some further details on that front coming up in the near future, but know that we really do appreciate your passion for the game and your continued feedback. We are listening.

PvP Mage Talent Outline for Mists of Pandaria

G’day all! :D

Just off the top of my head, this is how diminishing returns works for mages:

There are also several snares which are not affected by DR, such as Frostbolt

The random root DR mentioned is actually a separate category to normal roots. We reserve this only for effects that are procs, instead of those that are the general effect of a spell. This is a very subtle and subjective classification that often comes down to simply what feels right.

Currently, we think that Frost mages have too much control in PvP. This is just something that has grown over time because we always felt that these "chilling" and "freezing" effects should naturally slow you down. Part of the design that we are implementing with the Mists of Pandaria talent changes are to move some of that control Frost mages have to the talent tree. This means it will be possible for a Frost mage to choose these options, but they come at the expense of others, Arcane and Fire mages also have the opportunity to get those control choices as well! :O

The overall effect of this is that Arcane and Fire should stay about neutral in regards to their control, but frost will lose some of it. On the other hand though, it is possible for a Frost's damage to go up and be competitive with that of the other mages if they do not go for the control talents.

Comments

Comment by Elladaryn

I think I understand the point for MoP, it is very different from the other expansions. I am really looking for it with new eyes!

Comment by Adamsm

on 2012-02-07T20:38:08-06:00

The new figures don't look bad, but not as good as the original sets.

Comment by Aislinge

on 2012-02-07T20:42:43-06:00

Liking it all and super quick fix for the Love/Darkmoon clash! Awesome!

Comment by Interest

on 2012-02-07T21:18:20-06:00

The event leading to Ultraxion now requires 15 Drakes killed, down from 24.

YES. YES!

Comment by Orranis

on 2012-02-07T21:28:16-06:00

The event leading to Ultraxion now requires 15 Drakes killed, down from 24.

YES. YES!

YEEEEEEEEEES

Comment by milalyr

on 2012-02-07T22:38:07-06:00

The event leading to Ultraxion now requires 15 Drakes killed, down from 24.

YES. YES!

\\o/

Comment by Adamsm

on 2012-02-07T23:19:13-06:00

Also, does the phrase "Action Figure" mean something completely different in Europe? Because all I see on that post are plastic statuettes. They're not poseable, they don't have removable weapons, they can't be placed into vehicles. There's no "action" involved, they're just mantlepiece decor, not toys.

Usually there are portions of them that move, and the weapons come apart to fit them into the hands. And yes, they are figurines, meant for show not play.

Comment by Prasiatko

on 2012-02-08T07:45:21-06:00

I hope we are going to receive some saner reasoning to the Alliance-Horde conflict. I enjoy both PvE and PvP, but when it comes to story... I feel like I´m doing something good in PvE, but in PvP, I feel like monster, genociding races for vanity of our insane/prejudicial (depending on faction) leader. I´m not saying that I want the war to stop, I just want it to have actual reason. And no, letting one faction destroy other´s town is not "reason", it´s "result".

Comment by Azazel

on 2012-02-08T07:52:21-06:00

Frost mages getting nerfed.

Melee players rejoice!

Comment by Adamsm

on 2012-02-08T07:52:52-06:00

I hope we are going to receive some saner reasoning to the Alliance-Horde conflict. I enjoy both PvE and PvP, but when it comes to story... I feel like I´m doing something good in PvE, but in PvP, I feel like monster, genociding races for vanity of our insane/prejudicial (depending on faction) leader. I´m not saying that I want the war to stop, I just want it to have actual reason. And no, letting one faction destroy other´s town is not "reason", it´s "result".

The reasoning is, over the last 27-32 years(depending on which time line you are looking at), the races have been through 2 wars, fought a 3rd war that was influenced from the outside, took on enemies across the globe, had groups pretend to be faction based and kept the fighting going, and finally had the 4th war declared after the Wrath Gate....and that's leaving out the old racial hatreds heh.

Comment by Prasiatko

on 2012-02-08T08:02:29-06:00

I hope we are going to receive some saner reasoning to the Alliance-Horde conflict. I enjoy both PvE and PvP, but when it comes to story... I feel like I´m doing something good in PvE, but in PvP, I feel like monster, genociding races for vanity of our insane/prejudicial (depending on faction) leader. I´m not saying that I want the war to stop, I just want it to have actual reason. And no, letting one faction destroy other´s town is not "reason", it´s "result".

The reasoning is, over the last 27-32 years(depending on which time line you are looking at), the races have been through 2 wars, fought a 3rd war that was influenced from the outside, took on enemies across the globe, had groups pretend to be faction based and kept the fighting going, and finally had the 4th war declared after the Wrath Gate....and that's leaving out the old racial hatreds heh.

That´s still not reason. Fighting only because there were conflicts is like invading Germany because they started both world wars. War that exists only because of itself is just stupid

Comment by Adamsm

on 2012-02-08T08:06:33-06:00

I hope we are going to receive some saner reasoning to the Alliance-Horde conflict. I enjoy both PvE and PvP, but when it comes to story... I feel like I´m doing something good in PvE, but in PvP, I feel like monster, genociding races for vanity of our insane/prejudicial (depending on faction) leader. I´m not saying that I want the war to stop, I just want it to have actual reason. And no, letting one faction destroy other´s town is not "reason", it´s "result".

The reasoning is, over the last 27-32 years(depending on which time line you are looking at), the races have been through 2 wars, fought a 3rd war that was influenced from the outside, took on enemies across the globe, had groups pretend to be faction based and kept the fighting going, and finally had the 4th war declared after the Wrath Gate....and that's leaving out the old racial hatreds heh.

That´s still not reason. Fighting only because there were conflicts is like invading Germany because they started both world wars. War that exists only because of itself is just stupid

And the war keeps going on because of what Deathwing did; when he shattered the world, he screwed up a lot of areas and now the factions are fighting for land, supplies, and trying to keep their people safe....and still indulging in the old racial hatreds.

Comment by Prasiatko

on 2012-02-08T08:36:18-06:00

And the war keeps going on because of what Deathwing did; when he shattered the world, he screwed up a lot of areas and now the factions are fighting for land, supplies, and trying to keep their people safe....and still indulging in the old racial hatreds.

Sorry, but this sounds like a joke. Lead a war to keep people safe? What will be next? Stealing food from people to keep them saturated? Land is shattered, so devastate it even more with battles? Lack supplies, so use the remaining for army? Sorry, but this really doesn´t make sense.

And to racial hatreds: Night elves are very good friends to Tauren, and Theramore was ally of Thrall. Blood elves (High elves back then) were also allies to the Humans. While Worgens have slaughtered a ton of Humans and I won´t even talk about the Dark iron (which is now welcome in Ironforge) (I am not interested in reasoning why are these factions accepted now, i know it, but you must admit that their crimes are not any better than those from among factions). I think that the "racial hatred" is not really that much of barrier

Comment by Adamsm

on 2012-02-08T08:41:00-06:00

Sorry, but this sounds like a joke. Lead a war to keep people safe? What will be next? Stealing food from people to keep them saturated? Land is shattered, so devastate it even more with battles? Lack supplies, so use the remaining for army? Sorry, but this really doesn´t make sense.

When your people are starving and your bread basket just got torn in half, you're gonna start invading other areas to get food, as well as the fact the Ashenvale lumber conflict has been going on since WC3.

And to racial hatreds: Night elves are very good friends to Tauren, and Theramore was ally of Thrall. Blood elves (High elves back then) were also allies to the Humans. While Worgens have slaughtered a ton of Humans and I won´t even talk about the Dark iron (which is now welcome in Ironforge) (I am not interested in reasoning why are these factions accepted now, i know it, but you must admit that their crimes are not any better than those from among factions). I think that the "racial hatred" is not really that much of barrier

Night Elves are good friends to the Tauren...but they hate Trolls with a burning passion, same as all elf races hate the Trolls and vice versa. Theramore may be an ally of Thrall, but he's not in command anymore, and that's one human city; Stormwind watched their city destroyed and their king killed by the orcish horde, something like that won't be easy to forget......and let's not get into what the Forsaken have done. So yeah, since the Trolls and Elves have been fighting since the Night Elf nation rose up on the shores of the Well of Eternity and they shattered the Troll empires, racial hatred is still a driving factor in the game.

Comment by Prasiatko

on 2012-02-08T08:59:01-06:00

Night Elves are good friends to the Tauren...but they hate Trolls with a burning passion, same as all elf races hate the Trolls and vice versa. Theramore may be an ally of Thrall, but he's not in command anymore, and that's one human city; Stormwind watched their city destroyed and their king killed by the orcish horde, something like that won't be easy to forget......and let's not get into what the Forsaken have done. So yeah, since the Trolls and Elves have been fighting since the Night Elf nation rose up on the shores of the Well of Eternity and they shattered the Troll empires, racial hatred is still a driving factor in the game.

Stop generalizing. You are saying that all elves hate trolls and that it´s a big issue. *Cougt* Silvermoon *cough*. Also, Darkspear has never had any major standing in any troll empire, and troll tribes even hate each other, so it´s really not fair to generalize them into this level. Also, a dark troll tribe whose name I can´t recall was also ally of elves. this generalization is simply wrong to its core. When Stormwind was destroyed, it was still the old Horde, a group of bloodthirsty orcs powered by dark magic, something diametrically different from what it is now. The leadership has changed completely, and heck, it happened nearly generation ago, many of current orc didn´t even see the light of world in time this happened. And I know that Thrall is not in command anymore, but my point wasn´t that "leader of horde is friend of that town", but "orcs and humans are able to get along".I agree with forsaken, but they aren´t very friendly even to the horde.And as i already said, there are several other groups inside both factions that could have reason to be hated by them. They could get over the conflict with them, why not with each other?

Comment by Adamsm

on 2012-02-08T09:11:19-06:00

Because then the game would be over? Seriously, since the war is the true big bad of MoP, it's not gonna end, as long as faction pride exists.

Comment by xoawolf

on 2012-02-08T11:32:48-06:00

Stop generalizing. You are saying that all elves hate trolls and that it´s a big issue. *Cougt* Silvermoon *cough*. Also, Darkspear has never had any major standing in any troll empire, and troll tribes even hate each other, so it´s really not fair to generalize them into this level. Also, a dark troll tribe whose name I can´t recall was also ally of elves. this generalization is simply wrong to its core. When Stormwind was destroyed, it was still the old Horde, a group of bloodthirsty orcs powered by dark magic, something diametrically different from what it is now. The leadership has changed completely, and heck, it happened nearly generation ago, many of current orc didn´t even see the light of world in time this happened. And I know that Thrall is not in command anymore, but my point wasn´t that "leader of horde is friend of that town", but "orcs and humans are able to get along".I agree with forsaken, but they aren´t very friendly even to the horde.And as i already said, there are several other groups inside both factions that could have reason to be hated by them. They could get over the conflict with them, why not with each other?

Well I just wanted to point out that, what Adamsm meant by "racial hatreds" still holds true because though you pointed out that they aren't the same Orcish Horde as they were before being powered by the blood of Mannoroth.... except racism (cause that's roughly what this is more or less) doesn't work like that. People DON'T forget things that happen generations latter even if they weren't there to remember it. Look at the Holocaust in real life, people STILL remember it and racism STILL exists. Obviously the Allies aren't forever at war with Germany (like the Horde and Alliance) for it BUT that's simply because anti racism was NOT one of the goals for the war and thus was never solved in WoW.

It may be sad but that's the way the cookie crumbles and quite frankly WoW is very similar to REAL life in the sense that war often times doesn't make sense. So sorry but till Blizz comes up with a new twist on how the war is going, better get use to it.

That being said though the way a individual feels about how or why they are fighting is completely up to that person. For instance I fight other players cause, just like the Pandaren, fighting is NOT personal but fun. If you don't support the way your faction leader is going with war then don't fight cause of them, fight for your own reasons. =p

I have no bias over Horde or Alliance and if I could I would want to fight both. I been saying it since Vanilla, Blizz should allow players/guilds to go "rogue" and split from whatever faction and throw a unique game play on it. Would spice things up from the 1 faction vs 1 faction thing. But that's just my 2 cents haha.

Whew, sorry bout the wall of text

Comment by xedcoco

on 2012-02-08T11:39:18-06:00

I for one look forward to logging into a game whose name has changed to World of Peacecraft, where I knit scarves for my new Tauren friends and drink tea on the patio with the local Blood Elf socialites while nibbling cucumber sandwiches and discussing the weather.

No, wait... that doesn't sound right. :z

I hadn't realised the war in this game had to make sense by any conventional standards and overcomplicating the issue takes away from the fun. Just play the bloody game and go slaughter some Horde/Alliance.

Comment by Eudemonia

on 2012-02-08T13:37:32-06:00

Night Elves are good friends to the Tauren...but they hate Trolls with a burning passion, same as all elf races hate the Trolls and vice versa. Theramore may be an ally of Thrall, but he's not in command anymore, and that's one human city; Stormwind watched their city destroyed and their king killed by the orcish horde, something like that won't be easy to forget......and let's not get into what the Forsaken have done. So yeah, since the Trolls and Elves have been fighting since the Night Elf nation rose up on the shores of the Well of Eternity and they shattered the Troll empires, racial hatred is still a driving factor in the game.

Stop generalizing. You are saying that all elves hate trolls and that it´s a big issue. *Cougt* Silvermoon *cough*. Also, Darkspear has never had any major standing in any troll empire, and troll tribes even hate each other, so it´s really not fair to generalize them into this level. Also, a dark troll tribe whose name I can´t recall was also ally of elves. this generalization is simply wrong to its core. When Stormwind was destroyed, it was still the old Horde, a group of bloodthirsty orcs powered by dark magic, something diametrically different from what it is now. The leadership has changed completely, and heck, it happened nearly generation ago, many of current orc didn´t even see the light of world in time this happened. And I know that Thrall is not in command anymore, but my point wasn´t that "leader of horde is friend of that town", but "orcs and humans are able to get along".I agree with forsaken, but they aren´t very friendly even to the horde.And as i already said, there are several other groups inside both factions that could have reason to be hated by them. They could get over the conflict with them, why not with each other?

The problem is that you're trying to use logic and good story telling principles to evaluate a game that considers "he's crazy and he has shiny stuff we want" to be adequate motivation/characterization.

Or, to put it another way, for all the talk of enlightened beings and rational leaders, the conflict in WoW ultimately boils down to a simple truth: people who look different from each other can never live in harmony. Call it the Dalek theory of race relationships, "They honestly think that everything that is different is wrong".

Seriously, just look at how they changed the leadership of the Horde from Thrall, who is basically green Jesus, to Hellscream. Pretty much everyone thinks this is a bad idea: Thrall's former Orc subjects get a fascist warmonger who curtails their rights and privileges, Thrall's former allies are humiliated and insulted, and countless individuals will die in conflicts that a leader like Thrall could avoid.

So why did Thrall do it? For the same reason basically everything ever happens in the Star Wars prequals: the authors don't know how to tell their story using realistic characters, and don't care if it makes sense so long as they can cram ever more crap onto the screen/game.

Comment by Prasiatko

on 2012-02-09T08:04:06-06:00

Stop generalizing. You are saying that all elves hate trolls and that it´s a big issue. *Cougt* Silvermoon *cough*. Also, Darkspear has never had any major standing in any troll empire, and troll tribes even hate each other, so it´s really not fair to generalize them into this level. Also, a dark troll tribe whose name I can´t recall was also ally of elves. this generalization is simply wrong to its core. When Stormwind was destroyed, it was still the old Horde, a group of bloodthirsty orcs powered by dark magic, something diametrically different from what it is now. The leadership has changed completely, and heck, it happened nearly generation ago, many of current orc didn´t even see the light of world in time this happened. And I know that Thrall is not in command anymore, but my point wasn´t that "leader of horde is friend of that town", but "orcs and humans are able to get along".I agree with forsaken, but they aren´t very friendly even to the horde.And as i already said, there are several other groups inside both factions that could have reason to be hated by them. They could get over the conflict with them, why not with each other?

Well I just wanted to point out that, what Adamsm meant by "racial hatreds" still holds true because though you pointed out that they aren't the same Orcish Horde as they were before being powered by the blood of Mannoroth.... except racism (cause that's roughly what this is more or less) doesn't work like that. People DON'T forget things that happen generations latter even if they weren't there to remember it. Look at the Holocaust in real life, people STILL remember it and racism STILL exists. Obviously the Allies aren't forever at war with Germany (like the Horde and Alliance) for it BUT that's simply because anti racism was NOT one of the goals for the war and thus was never solved in WoW.

It may be sad but that's the way the cookie crumbles and quite frankly WoW is very similar to REAL life in the sense that war often times doesn't make sense. So sorry but till Blizz comes up with a new twist on how the war is going, better get use to it.

That being said though the way a individual feels about how or why they are fighting is completely up to that person. For instance I fight other players cause, just like the Pandaren, fighting is NOT personal but fun. If you don't support the way your faction leader is going with war then don't fight cause of them, fight for your own reasons. =p

I have no bias over Horde or Alliance and if I could I would want to fight both. I been saying it since Vanilla, Blizz should allow players/guilds to go "rogue" and split from whatever faction and throw a unique game play on it. Would spice things up from the 1 faction vs 1 faction thing. But that's just my 2 cents haha.

Whew, sorry bout the wall of text

I also fight for fun, I like PvP, my point was that in PvE, I have fun with the encouter and then, when the boss is going to die, I can have a good feeling about what I ´m doing. but in PvP, yes, i have fun fighting those allies/hordes, but if I want to really enjoy it, I must completely forget about that something like "story" even exists, otherwise, I start to feel like a racist monster, and IMHO story should make the game more enjoyable, not conversely. I am aware of the fact that some wars can be meaningless, but does being part of such war make the game more interesting? I just think that this war needs to have better reason than just "I am racist, so I´m gonna kill you!" or "Your ancestor I never met killed my ancestor I never met!", as I already mentioned, we have good reasons to hate the PvE bosses, while some of them are not really "evil", just are doing something what gives the player a rational reason to hate them (Malygos, Deadmines). I think it is possible to give players a good reason to not like the other faction. Even as simple one as one faction taking something what they really need but rightfully belongs to the other one would do.